District 19-4A Champions

Lady Lions blank Princeton 3-0 to secure girls soccer title
March 9, 2011

By David Claybourn
Herald-Banner Sports Editor

Greenville's Lady Lions locked up the top spot in District 19-4A soccer with a 3-0 victory over Princeton on Tuesday night at T.A. "Cotton" Ford Stadium.

Maddy Crabtree, Julia Hernandez and Carol Twilley scored as the Lady Lions completed district play with a 7-1 record. Their only blemish on the district record was an overtime shootout loss to North Lamar on Saturday after the two teams battled to a 1-1 standoff in regulation.

"We set a goal at the beginning of the season to win district and we did it," said Lady Lions coach Ryan Dunlevy after receiving the traditional dousing from a water cooler. "We had beautiful goals, all of them. We've improved in every aspect of the game."

"I'm proud of my seniors," he said. "It's (the district championship) gotten away from then the past three years. I'm proud we got it for them."

The Lady Lions kept constant pressure on the Princeton defense with a 43-0 advantage in shots on goal.

Katelynn Twilley, Crabtree and Bailey Phillips barely missed on several shots in the first half. Twilley had shots bang off the top and side posts.

Crabtree finally put the Lady Lions on the scoreboard with 2:05 left before halftime with a shot set up by Julia Hernandez's header.

Julia Hernandez made it 2-0 with 35:05 remaining with a header set up by a cross from Emmaline Hollingsworth. It was a play the Lady Lions have worked on in practice.

Carol Twilley, Katelynn's younger sister, scored her first varsity goal with 7:37 left, booting in a hard shot from 30 yards that found the upper right corner of the net.

Brandy Gray and Ellen Robins played goalkeeper for the Lady Lions and weren't challenged.

Greenville has one more regular season game left on Friday at Anna, which is a non-district opponent that is playing District 19-4A teams because it is not in a district.

Dunlevy has also scheduled a warm-up game for the Lady Lions on March 21 at Lucas Lovejoy.